Another group has joined the chorus of officials expressing frustration with the state education agency for delays in implementing laws passed during the last legislative session.
This time, it’s the Board of Public Education, a governor-appointed oversight board. Members unanimously agreed during a special meeting on Monday to send a letter to Superintendent Elsie Arntzen voicing disagreement with how the Office of Public Instruction has handled public charter legislation.
“It is my hope and prayer that approval of this formal letter (...) will get this process moving so that these innovative programs designed to benefit students of Montana may open on time as expected,” said Tim Tharp, chair of the BPE from Savage.
Under House Bill 549, BPE is responsible for approving public charter school applications. It approved 19 proposals in January, 18 of which are slated to open their doors for the next school year. However, OPI asserts charters need to go through the existing school opening process for traditional, non-charter public schools.
This would mean school district applicants must receive separate and additional approval from the superintendent’s office and/or local county commissioners.
As of Monday, OPI has refused to assign a school code to the charters already approved by BPE, which is necessary to be able to begin allocating funding and crafting a preliminary budget. BPE’s letter directs the agency to do so.
Tharp called the current deadlock a “highly distasteful situation.” He noted the board has sought counsel from a number of legal experts, and the “only dissenting opinion” has come from OPI. If the Legislature had wanted to give counties veto power over charters, “they would have done so,” Tharp said.
Rep. Fred Anderson, R-Great Falls, spoke during public comment as the sponsor of HB 549. He confirmed that there was “no intention” of giving anyone other than BPE oversight authority for charters.
“Seeing this now as a detour or a roadblock is disappointing,” Anderson said.
Lawmakers from the Legislature’s Education Interim Budget Committee issued a formal complaint earlier this month after extensive hearings that Arntzen refused to attend. The discussions resulted in an impasse on Indian Education for All, quality educator funding, early literacy programs and more.
“We’ve not been persuasive,” said Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, who chairs the EIBC and spoke during public comment at Monday’s meeting. “I hope you have better luck.”
Failure to move forward on public charters is the “most significant of these issues,” according to Tharp, because it risks their ability to start operating in the fall.
The superintendent submitted a letter to BPE offering her belief that the law as it’s written fails to waive charters from the application process faced by any other public school. “I believe public charter schools are public schools,” Arntzen said to BPE on Monday.
She encouraged BPE to pen a new policy for charters that either excludes them from the traditional school-opening process or carves out a distinct path for them. Otherwise, OPI will continue to follow “existing legal requirements for school opening,” Arntzen wrote in a letter submitted to the board.
“I encourage you to partner with school districts and the OPI to promote the school opening process so that public charter schools can prepare to open on time,” it said.
Arntzen, who will term out of the office of the superintendent this year, is running to represent Montana’s 2nd Congressional District.
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